A Hierarchical Concept of Ecosystems

by O'Neill, R. V. (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780691084367
• ISBN10: 069108436X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1986-12-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

"Ecosystem" is an intuitively appealing concept to most ecologists, but, in spite of its widespread use, the term remains diffuse and ambiguous. The authors of this book argue that previous attempts to define the concept have been derived from particular viewpoints to the exclusion of others equally possible. They offer instead a more general line of thought based on hierarchy theory. Their contribution should help to counteract the present separation of subdisciplines in ecology and to bring functional and population/community ecologists closer to a common approach. Developed as a way of understanding highly complex organized systems, hierarchy theory has at its center the idea that organization results from differences in process rates. To the authors the theory suggests an objective way of decomposing ecosystems into their component parts. The results thus obtained offer a rewarding method for integrating various schools of ecology.

Author Biography

R. V. O'Neill and D. L. DeAngelis are Senior Ecologists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. J. B. Waide is Research Ecologist at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, in Otto, North Carolina. T.F.H. Allen is Professor of Botany at the University of Wisconsin.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
The Concept of an Ecosystem	p. 1
Fundamental Ambiguities in the Ecosystem Concept	p. 3
A Historical Perspective on How Ecologists Have Viewed Ecosystems	p. 20
Preliminary Considerations	p. 35
The Ecosystem as a System	p. 37
The Concept of Hierarchy and Its Typical Application	p. 55
A Proposal for a Theory	p. 73
Some Elements of Hierarchy Theory	p. 75
Hierarchical Structure as the Consequence of Evolution in Open, Dissipative Systems	p. 101
Applications of the Theory to Ecological Systems	p. 123
Ecosystems as Hierarchies of Species	p. 125
Ecosystems as Hierarchies of Processes	p. 159
Ecosystems as Dual Hierarchies	p. 186
Literature Cited	p. 213
Author Index	p. 247
Subject Index	p. 251
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